Marine Protected Areas

Current research has shown that waters off Florida and the Bahamas are important pupping and feeding grounds for several sharks, providing them with the critical habitat required for the conservation of these slow-to-mature ocean animals.

Researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science studied the core home range of 86 bull, great hammerhead and tiger sharks tagged in waters off south Florida and the northern Bahamas.

The tiny Pacific nation of Palau has approved the establishment of a marine sanctuary twice the size of Mexico. Conservationists said the 500,000 sq. km sanctuary would be the world’s sixth-largest fully protected area. The move follows a series of announcements on new marine parks, by Chile, New Zealand and the UK, to protect vast swaths of oceans from overfishing.

Are Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) meeting their ecological goals? Marine scientists from the Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans (PISCO) monitoring the rocky reef and kelp forest communities in California state waters around the northern Channel Islands off the coast of Santa Barbara finds positive results. Their study represents one of the first opportunities marine biologists have had to examine a network of MPAs, rather than a single location.
 

The British government has created the world's largest marine reserve around the Pitcairn Islands, one of the world's most remote locations. Offering unprecedented protection to more than 1,200 species of marine mammals, fish and sea birds in the South Pacific, the 322,138-square-mile reserve is located is approximately three-and-half times the size of the United Kingdom.

The Madagascar government has established its first shark sanctuary in an area celebrated for marine biodiversity. According to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the new marine protections apply to Antongil Bay, located in northwestern Madagascar and renowned for its coral reefs and seasonal humpback whale population.

Gabon has declared nearly a quarter of its territorial sea off-limits to commercial fishing. The central African nation is home to a variety of threatened species including great hammerhead sharks, manta rays and whale sharks.

"Bangladesh brings us excellent news as we prepare for the World Parks Congress, a once-in-a-decade event where the conservation community from around the world will gather to discuss and make progress in improving the management and expansion of protected areas on the land and in the oceans," said Dr. Cristián Samper, Wildlife Conservation Society’s president and CEO.

President Obama announced today that he’s creating the world’s largest marine protected area.

The proclamation — which Secretary of State John F. Kerry announced during an oceans meeting he convened in New York on Thursday — will mean added protections for deep-sea coral reefs and other marine ecosystems that administration officials say are among “the most vulnerable” to the negative effects of climate change.